Durham University is not what it seems, do not go here! Please read!

I've been debating whether to post this for a while, and I'm doing so using my friends account who has kindly allowed me to post my experience regarding Durham University. I just want to say that this is just my experience and others may have a different experience as I was 1 of 20 thousand students so make of it as you wish.

Where to begin? I believe there are so many things wrong with this University that made it quite a terrible experience from my perspective. There's two main topics that I'll delve into, the student population and the actual University itself.

Diversity & Inclusion:

I thought I would start here as it's the thing that sticks out the most in my opinion. Before I go into the actual University itself it is important to understand the historical context of the city and surrounding area to fully understand the unnatural and uncomfortable environment that is present as a result of this. Durham county itself is a very working class area that was a traditional mining area and suffered greatly from Thatcher's policy to shut down mining operations and as a result, many people lost their jobs and the economic situation deteriorated heavily, leaving many destitute and unemployed. To this day, Durham is still very working class and still recovering from the closure of the mines.

The student population drastically juxtaposes the socio-economic class of the people who live in the city and surrounding area. Middle-Upper class kids from affluent areas in the UK and Chinese students that are the children of the elite in China, walking around in £1000s worth of clothing on a daily basis. They have no regard for the people that are struggling to make ends meet in the city that they have come to, to get their education. There is a Town v Gown mentality. A few years ago - Trevelyan College rugby club planned a “Thatcher v the miners”-themed social, asking members to dress in “flat caps” and “filth”. For inspiration, the team were to: “Think pickaxes. Think headlamps. Think 12% unemployment in 1984”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/26/student-rugby-team-forced-to-cancel-event-mocking-miners-strike

This should give you an idea of the type of students that go here. Of course it's not everyone, but it's arguably the majority. By the way, if you include grammar schools (which in my opinion is a lot closer to a private school than your average comprehensive), most of the students come from this type of environment. If you're a BAME student or a working class white kid you will find it hard to fit in with most of these students. All the activities and 'formals' are pretentious. There are summer and winter balls and it's all just pretentious to be honest. The nightlife is very poor, cringey and corny music. Newcastle is 15mins away on train so that's a plus. I haven't even mention the ridiculous amount of money all of these events cost, it's not very inclusive for those who are poor or less fortunate.

I haven't even touched on the micro-aggression and casual racism from the students. I was literally asked on my first day "if I was from the hood?" Like wtf. Honestly if you're from London, or even Brum or Manny I'd strongly advise you to go to an equally as good university such as Manchester or Leeds, Nottingham or the London unis. You'll have a much better time. You won't be scorned for listening to any decent tunes (hip-hop/rnb) or surrounded by Oxbridge rejects.

There's so much else to say but this post is getting long, the point is, Durham can be very isolating if you're not from a certain background and honestly you'll have a better time elsewhere.

£££ - Money

Okay, this is about the University itself. I honestly believe Durham only cares about making as much money as possible. Not only do they charge the most absurd amount of money for every activity, society and college fees, but the accommodation fees are a damn right rip-off.
Most students will live in a Durham college in their first year, where most colleges are catered. For this you are charged a whopping £7,894. If you're fortunate enough to get a self-catered college, it will cost you 5.5-6k for the academic year so that is for around 36-40 weeks. It's honestly a huge rip-off. Many times you won't even be up to get breakfast served in the catered colleges and a lot of the time you would rather go eat out with a friend or two.

A gown, which I found to be very pretentious is £53, which you need to get at the beginning of freshers. Then you have to pay a JCR fee of around £150-200 which varies between the colleges in order to go to events at a supposedly cheaper rate. The summer and winter balls are like £80. College library fees is another £20. Like seriously, this University is a money making scheme. The accommodation is more expensive than some halls in LONDON.

Against the wishes of the local community, the University is continuing to build more Colleges to cater for more and more students, despite the increasing strain on resources. The main library already gets very packed especially during term time so I fail to see how they are going to cater for the extra students. The University loves international students and is trying to get as many as possible, because they are a cash cow for the Uni. The quality of teaching is being diluted, super big classes with very minimal spending to improve facilities to match the rate of rapidly increasing student numbers. Every year without fail, they will increase the cost of accommodation prices and even outside of college accommodation there is a monopoly on student houses in the area so it is all just very expensive.

I'm losing my patience to continue writing but all in all, Durham feels like a factory, trying to get as many students as possible in order to extract as much money as they can from them. It's a public boarding school environment full of rich kids and the like.

Don't make my mistake. Go to Leeds/Manchester/Nottingham if you want an equally as good degree but have a WAAAY better time.

Reply 40

Anonymous #10

Original post

by Anonymous

I'm the same, I'm about to firm my Durham offer due to the excellence for the course I want to do, and I'm definitely going with self catered as a preference due to the lower cost!

I know castle is very competitive but they have a self catered option, so I'm really hoping I get in

Reply 41

Anonymous #11

Original post

by Wired_1800

I honestly don't know. The Durham people that I know went to St Mary’s, Hatfield and University. They all had great times.

Apparently University is super competitive to get into, so Hatfield and St Mary’s are the two suggested options.

Thanks for your help, and I've heard great things about Mary's its a shame that it's catered or it would 100% be my first choice!

Reply 42

Wired_1800

20

Original post

by Anonymous

my top choice is castle, and Mary's is soon after that :smile:

I'm just wondering why it's such a bad thing to tell people?

Castle is competitive, so don't put all your hopes on getting in there. Castle apparently has similar vibes to St Mary’s and Hatfield.

The Oxbridge reject tag is just a shaming term used to insult people by indirectly saying they were not good enough for Oxbridge. It makes no sense because most of those students go on to top unis like Imperial, Manchester, UCL, Durham, LSE etc. it is ridiculous because there are Imperial rejects, Manchester rejects and Durham rejects, but they don't have a bad rep.

To me, it is best not to mention it just incase the person asking is biased and could treat you the wrong way.

Reply 43

Wired_1800

20

Original post

by Anonymous

Thanks for your help, and I've heard great things about Mary's its a shame that it's catered or it would 100% be my first choice!

No worries. It should be your choice.

Reply 44

XanaXoid

12

Original post

by Anonymous

Thanks for your help, and I've heard great things about Mary's its a shame that it's catered or it would 100% be my first choice!

Hi, if you want a self catered accomodation it might be worth having a look at cuth's

Reply 45

Anonymous #10

Original post

by Wired_1800

Castle is competitive, so don't put all your hopes on getting in there. Castle apparently has similar vibes to St Mary’s and Hatfield.

The Oxbridge reject tag is just a shaming term used to insult people by indirectly saying they were not good enough for Oxbridge. It makes no sense because most of those students go on to top unis like Imperial, Manchester, UCL, Durham, LSE etc. it is ridiculous because there are Imperial rejects, Manchester rejects and Durham rejects, but they don't have a bad rep.

To me, it is best not to mention it just incase the person asking is biased and could treat you the wrong way.

I won't be completely fixated on it :smile:

thanks for explaining that to me, it makes no sense to me either because there are inevitably more good candidates than spaces, I'm happy that I gave it a go instead of not applying for fear if being rejected. I even dislike the word 'reject' haha because it automatically insinuates some form of failure when in reality we can still do well. I won't mention it whenever possible

Reply 46

Wired_1800

20

Original post

by Anonymous

I won't be completely fixated on it :smile:

thanks for explaining that to me, it makes no sense to me either because there are inevitably more good candidates than spaces, I'm happy that I gave it a go instead of not applying for fear if being rejected. I even dislike the word 'reject' haha because it automatically insinuates some form of failure when in reality we can still do well. I won't mention it whenever possible

Exactly.

Good luck at Durham.

Reply 47

Durham Rep Ghala

Official Rep

14

Hi there

I love how you are not discouraged by the 'oxbridge reject' tag going on in universities. Nobody has ever really asked me whether I'm an oxbridge reject and honestly it doesn't even come up much- once you're in Durham, there's no point talking about any other university? Plus Durham is as much a good uni as any other so I don't see why people make such a big deal out of it anyway.

Just to point out, castle and cuths do have self-catered blocks but neither of them is actually on the bailey. For Cuths, it's in Parson's Field and that of Castle is New Kepier Court I believe. Just mentioning it because some people imagine they're going to live in the actual castle but end up being accommodated in other blocks and get disappointed!

-Himieka (Official DU Rep)

Reply 48

Anonymous #2

Original post

by Durham Students

Plus Durham is as much a good uni as any other so I don't see why people make such a big deal out of it anyway.

Really is quite an overrated uni unfortunately, having attended Durham as well as other (“not as prestigious unis”) I cannot comprehend how Durham is ranked/valued so highly. Course content/difficulty/facilities/experience/any metric it lags behind so many

Durham is not as good as any other unis out there….it’s worse, but people seem to be blinded by the reputation it somehow acquired….attend other universities and you’ll see it’s a bubble you’re in

Reply 49

Durham Rep Ghala

Official Rep

14

Original post

by Anonymous

Really is quite an overrated uni unfortunately, having attended Durham as well as other (“not as prestigious unis”) I cannot comprehend how Durham is ranked/valued so highly. Course content/difficulty/facilities/experience/any metric it lags behind so many

Durham is not as good as any other unis out there….it’s worse, but people seem to be blinded by the reputation it somehow acquired….attend other universities and you’ll see it’s a bubble you’re in

Hi there

I understand you might not have liked it as much as other universities but I think it's a really subjective topic. Some people might like it more, others may not but you can't really figure out what sort of experience you're going to have based on how others have felt at Durham. Plus it's not possible to attend all unis at the same time so it's really up to you what matters the most. I've liked most of the facilities during my law study at Durham. Yeah there are some drawbacks that would be better addressed but they're not enough to completely ruin my experience.

-Himieka (Official DU Rep)

Reply 50

Anonymous #10

Original post

by Anonymous

Really is quite an overrated uni unfortunately, having attended Durham as well as other (“not as prestigious unis”) I cannot comprehend how Durham is ranked/valued so highly. Course content/difficulty/facilities/experience/any metric it lags behind so many

Durham is not as good as any other unis out there….it’s worse, but people seem to be blinded by the reputation it somehow acquired….attend other universities and you’ll see it’s a bubble you’re in

out of curiosity which uni do you attend now?

Reply 51

Anonymous #10

Original post

by Durham Students

Hi there

I understand you might not have liked it as much as other universities but I think it's a really subjective topic. Some people might like it more, others may not but you can't really figure out what sort of experience you're going to have based on how others have felt at Durham. Plus it's not possible to attend all unis at the same time so it's really up to you what matters the most. I've liked most of the facilities during my law study at Durham. Yeah there are some drawbacks that would be better addressed but they're not enough to completely ruin my experience.

-Himieka (Official DU Rep

I can't help but thinking that the course is better at durham than other unis for my subject, but I suppose like you said everyone will have a different opinion

Reply 52

Anonymous #2

Original post

by Anonymous

out of curiosity which uni do you attend now?

University of Aberdeen

Reply 53

gooey99

10

Last year, the maths students had in person exams while the other departments had online exams. 23/25 of the msc maths students failed at least one exam and had to retake in the summer, while all the maths undergrads had their marks moderated. Do not go to Durham. The teaching is abysmal.

Reply 54

Wired_1800

20

Original post

by gooey99

Last year, the maths students had in person exams while the other departments had online exams. 23/25 of the msc maths students failed at least one exam and had to retake in the summer, while all the maths undergrads had their marks moderated. Do not go to Durham. The teaching is abysmal.

Wow

Reply 55

3Engineer141592

11

Original post

by gooey99

Last year, the maths students had in person exams while the other departments had online exams. 23/25 of the msc maths students failed at least one exam and had to retake in the summer, while all the maths undergrads had their marks moderated. Do not go to Durham. The teaching is abysmal.

I cannot empathise how accurate this post is. Horrendous Uni that trades on its’ reputation and has nothing else to show

Reply 56

Anonymous #10

is that not just because the course is super hard

Reply 57

gooey99

10

Original post

by Anonymous

is that not just because the course is super hard

If over 90% of the course is failing at least one of their modules, surely that is indicative of the teaching … not to mention that the undergrad marks were moderated “to high hell” just so they could document a decent pass mark.

If you are admitted onto a course, it’s because the department know you are capable of being taught to pass. If everyone isn’t passing, then it’s the teaching.

Reply 58

MoliereGorky

2

Original post

by Anonymous

Sounds like you haven’t made the most of your uni experience. If you don’t like the socials rugby guys do...don’t involve yourself in societies like that (although I’m sure you haven’t).
You certainly haven’t convinced me and I think you need to realise in the real world things cost money and people of different backgrounds will behave differently.
Let me guess, you probably did English or some essay based subject with no job potential?

Let me guess, you probably are one of the trust fund babies Op is talking about? Upset they guessed your type to a T?

Reply 59

Anonymous #2

Original post

by MoliereGorky

Let me guess, you probably are one of the trust fund babies Op is talking about? Upset they guessed your type to a T?

You’re right, that is me to a T, but two years on from writing that. All the people I know who didn’t join societies or try to make the most of their time at uni ended up in dead end jobs (Morrisons cashiers with geography degrees etc) jobs beneath their degree (manual 12h shift jobs for engineering degrees who got their 2:1 and didn’t do anything at uni).

Ngl, from my perspective I feel vindicated, but if you’re at uni, read it as a frighting foretelling of what MAY happen to you if you don’t make the most of your time

Durham University is not what it seems, do not go here! Please read!

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